Endocrine Abstracts

The activin/transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a family of evolutionary conserved polypeptides. Their role has been implicated in the regulation of embryonic development, reproduction and tumor formation.Related to tumorigenesis TGF-β signaling inhibits cell proliferation at multiple levels by i) inducing the expression of tumor suppressors p15Ink4b and p21Waf1, ii) repressing oncogenic factors such as c-MYC and ...

MicroRNA (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that significantly impacted the understanding of cell biology in the last decade. They regulate the expression of 10–30% of all protein-coding gene, thus playing a crucial role in a wide range of biological and pathological processes. Consistently, aberrant miRNA expression has been implicated in numerous human diseases, including pituitary tumours. Different studies analysed the entire miRNA transcriptoma, by microarra...

MicroRNA and mRNA expression patterns have been investigated in several studies on adrenocortical tumours and in some reports on phaeochromocytomas. These studies are relevant from pathogenic, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects. Under- and overexpressed microRNAs representing tumour suppressor and oncogenic microRNAs have been reported that can be helpful in the diagnosis for differentiating benign and malignant adrenocortical tumours (e.g. miR-503-miR-511, miR-195, miR-483-5p...